August 3, 2015 – Crossing super-fast special stages at the “Finnish GP” with a total distance of 319.38Km, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team clinches 3rd place with Mads Østberg who is also ranked 3rd in the driver championship standing with 84 points after Rally Finland. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT enhanced its 2nd place in manufacturers championship with 141 points.
The final day of the WRC’s 8th round consisted of a single stage repeated twice. Myhinpää (14.13km) is used in the opposite direction to last year and in a shortened form. It was quite technical for the opening 8km, with several places where drivers had to slowdown to hold the correct line. The remainder of the special stage was very fast with several big jumps and blind crests just before the finish.
The Norwegian was not really going flat-out at the final stages of the event as he was well secured in 3rd place and was focused on safely getting the car through to gain the important points for his standings as well as for the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT. “Finland was an excellent Rally for me; I was focused on cleanly getting the car through to the end.” Østberg said.
“We demonstrated a persistent pace in pursuing the leaders, keeping them under pressure. We also had to contend with the rain and I had quite a few moments on the sections where the grip levels were inconsistent. It’s so nice to be at the end now, I enjoyed the whole rally. It feels good to be back and fighting after Poland, I’m really happy to be back on the podium. I hope we can continue to prepare for the other rallies like this.”
Kris Meeke was back under Rally 2 regulations to post brilliant times; the Briton gained 1 single point at the end of the rally for being the 3rd fastest driver in the Power Stage. “I always knew the pace was there, I need an extra half percent to keep it together. When that happens, it will be good.”
For Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi, Rally Finland was a great opportunity to gain experience from, it was a special event for him “we have learned a lot from the 20 super fast stages we passed through, our pace notes were not really perfect and sometimes were not matching the speed of the stage. I lifted up my pace at the final day by 20 percent to see where that will take us, but all in all, it was a fantastic experience.”
Within the JWRC; Abu Dhabi Racing’s junior driver Mohamed Al Mutawaa was driving steadily and happy with his day gaining very important experience for his career. Al Mutawaa completed the Rally with minor mistakes in pace notes moving up to 6th place in the JWRC category for the 2nd Rally in a row.
